It is known in the prior art to provide a pivoting seat, which pivots and locks with respect to a seat back. An example of such a seat is U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,649. As best seen in FIG. 2 of the drawings of the '649 patent, the assembly of the '649 patent requires supplementary pawl and detente members 28a and 30 which complicate the structure. It would be advantageous if the latching positions were defined with the mounting bracket and the pawl mounted with the seat bracket to simplify the assembly. Further, the seat back and the seat are attached to the assembly with separate brackets and therefore there is no provision for the interrelationship of the movements thereof.
It is also known to provide a release for seats, hoodlatches, trunks or the like which operates by turning a handle in a predetermined direction. For seats specifically, it would be advantageous to operate the release handle in either direction to release and move the seat.
Known latch structures and specifically the pawls thereof wear over time and, as a result, introduce rattles and other unpleasant noises into the operation thereof. Thus, there exists a need to provide a latching member with a wear resistant design which accommodates the many latching cycles thereof by wearing in a predetermined manner to ensure cooperation of the parts through the extended life thereof.
None of the prior art provides a simplified latch assembly which reduces the number of parts for a pivoting seat without sacrificing reliability. It would be therefore cost effective and efficient if a latch were available which includes detentes defined with the mounting bracket, and which may be engageable by a pawl having a predetermined geometry along with the detente to compensate for cycled wear. Finally it would also be beneficial to provide the assembly with a bi-directional release to simplify operation of seat assemblies.